Remembering firebrand feminist Robin Morgan who accused Ted Hughes of Sylvia Plath’s ‘murder’

Robin Morgan, a trailblazing feminist who famously accused poet Ted Hughes of Sylvia Plath’s death, has died at the age of 85 in New York. A leading figure of second-wave feminism, Morgan passed away on Saturday, just days after fellow activist Gloria Steinem.

Organizing protests against the Miss America Pageant and editing the 1970 feminist anthology Sisterhood is Powerful, Morgan is remembered for coining the term ‘herstory’. Her 1972 poem Arraignment boldly accused Hughes of murdering Plath, whom she alleged was murdered by the British and American literary establishment. While Morgan asserted Hughes had "real blood on real hands," she later clarified that she did not believe Hughes killed Plath, but rather drove her to suicide.

Born in Florida in 1941 and raised in New York, Morgan was modeling by age three and had her own radio show by five. Though initially a child star, Morgan became politically active in her teenage years, ultimately rejecting sexist dialogue on live broadcasts. In her early career, she protested against the Miss America Pageant, co-founded New York Radical Women and W.I.T.C.H., and went on to serve as the editor-in-chief of Ms Magazine, founded by fellow feminist Gloria Steinem.